Are these three whistleblowers - Jason Sands, Mike Herrera, and Jake Barber - telling the truth?

Three former US military whistleblowers - Jason Sands, Mike Herrera, and Jake Barber - claim to have first-hand experience with UFOs or UAP. They have spoken to Congress (although not as part of a public hearing) and AARO. Are they telling the truth? Our answer to this question concerning these three individuals isn’t black or white, but we’ll keep it short.

EvolveFirst.org is not a project with a debunking approach. As a team, collectively and individually, we think that some UFO or UAP cases are genuinely suggestive that Earth is being visited by advanced extraterrestrial civilisations. Our first article was titled “Too real to ignore”. Of course, the vast majority of UFO or UAP cases can be adequately explained by misidentification of known objects or phenomena and hoaxes, as is commonly accepted.

Psychological attitude is the key to our success, for example in our practical wildlife conservation projects. And we’re confident that we have a compelling answer to the Fermi paradox, with psychology or human potential at its heart, explaining why humanity might be of definite galactic interest. Our daily focus is psychology.

We should also make it crystal clear that we accept all three individuals did actually serve in the US military.

Jason Sands comes across as a fabulist. He’s made a string of claims that are unbelievable to the point of being silly, including meeting a pale blue-skinned alien wearing US battle dress uniform, and having to kill other aliens before being allowed to “exit The Program”. His stories have progressively become more elaborate and preposterous since he has engaged with various podcasts, including endorsing absurd stories as told by others. The red flags should be obvious.

Mike Herrera claims to have encountered a 300ft long unknown craft, protected by a US secret military unit, in a jungle clearing during 2009 whilst US Marines were assisting with a humanitarian mission to Sumatra, Indonesia. Herrera’s story has been strongly challenged and refuted by his team leader at the time, Nathan - whose manner is straightforward and fully in keeping with what you would expect if he was telling the truth. Herrera pumps up his story by the over-use of military jargon, and is utterly unconvincing when confronted by the counterclaims of the mundanity of what actually happened. If you can’t see facial indications that Herrera is lying, then look at the two photographs of him in Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform (woodland-camouflaged variant). In one of the photographs, taken by his team leader Nathan, Mike Herrera limply claims it isn’t him in the picture, with his upper face obscured by dark glasses. Yet a distinct section of his patterned uniform clearly matches what he’s wearing in the second photograph of him, which is not in doubt, not to mention the nose shape appears to be the same in both photographs.

These two individuals appear to be repeatedly lying, most likely to boost their self-esteem because of being unhappy with themselves at some level. They thrive off the attention from telling and re-telling their stories. This is known psychological behaviour.

Bell 212 (Image: public domain)

Jake Barber, from what we can tell, is not lying. He genuinely believes what he’s saying. As a private contractor, after he left the military, whilst piloting a Bell 212 helicopter at night, on separate occasions, he transported two unusual objects. We do not know what these objects were, although the likelihood is they were just experimental military hardware undergoing testing that had unexpectedly gone beyond the Nevada Test and Training Range, coming down “somewhere in the Californian desert”. (If a couple of tests had indeed overshot “the Range”, this alone might explain why the communications were different to normal.) Barber states that “ranking officers within the UAP Task Force” have since confirmed to him they were non-human craft, but this seemingly amounts to nothing more than speculation and reinforcement of mutual belief between individuals interested in UFOs or UAP.

Barber’s emotional experience whilst piloting a helicopter, with everything “quiet” on the radio, approaching one of these unknowns, can be easily explained as a cathartic release. He described it as an “emotional escalation”, like being “in the presence of my mother”, “it was sad and loving”, and “completely overwhelming, and I was balling my eyes out” - all of which are classic indications. He has referred to an “abusive” childhood that at times was “hell”, and it’s reasonable to assume there would also likely be repressed stress from his military service - either of which, or a combination of both, could be the cause of bottled up emotion over time. The cathartic release typically results in a positive and even powerful change of outlook, as Jake Barber describes. No possible association with a craft of unknown origin is required, and I strongly suggest that any linking of the two events is purely coincidental (although being both active and “quiet” are relevant circumstantial factors in the lead up to a cathartic release).

What is extremely concerning is what Jake Barber believes and effectively endorses. He holds Steven Greer in very high regard. Yet Greer is a dubious character who takes money from people to allegedly teach them how to establish communication or interaction with extraterrestrial beings through meditation etc. (For example, Greer has sold out his latest scheme of inviting people to be part of “making ET contact on the open ocean” scheduled for April 2025. The “tuition fee” is US$1,295 or US$1,995 for “VIP” status, excluding all of the regular cruise liner costs for 4 nights in the Caribbean, departing from Fort Lauderdale. But anyone interested can still pay US$299 to “participate in this unique event via webinar”.) And Greer’s numerous claims are mostly utterly ridiculous. Many have understandably called him a grifter. Barber also endorses Mike Herrera’s story, which is likewise worrying and suggests lapses in judgement. Two of Barber’s ex-military associates have recounted what they consider to be high strangeness experiences, whereas psychology understands that these fall within the known phenomenon of hypnagogic hallucinations.

Talk of “psionics” is also sailing close to silliness. This is the latest word for psychic or psi abilities. As a previous article has made clear, parapsychologists in numerous universities have failed to provide hard evidence that psychic abilities are real - and they’ve collectively tried to do so for almost 100 years. Most academic institutional parapsychological research has faded away over the decades. This is a subject I formally studied at university in London during the 1970s, and it was cringeworthy hearing Jake Barber explain his “understanding” of “psionics” in a lengthy interview with Jesse Michels, which was nothing more than woo-woo or pseudoscience. It gets even more concerning when Barber and others talk about “consciousness”, as if they know something that science struggles to get to grips with. (And this article goes into more detail.) It’s relatively easy to test if someone has a psychic ability - not least because parapsychologists have been refining their protocol for investigating such claimed phenomena since the 1930s and the attempts by JB Rhine at Duke University. And that’s before any consideration of why visiting extraterrestrial craft would be willing to be “summoned” by a bunch of ex-military individuals who probably wouldn’t claim to be the most ethical or intelligent representatives of the human race.

The matter of “I want to believe” is absolutely relevant to confirmation bias - and confirmation bias is obviously part of what’s happening here.

One of Jake Barber’s latest claims is that he, his family, and their neighbours repeatedly see: “a UAP we call The Angel that shows up over the house. It has wings, is blue, and then it shoots into outer space.” But where are the photos and video? Why hasn’t he got all the Skywatcher equipment at his house to document what’s happening and provide data for Garry Nolan whom he knows? Why didn’t Jesse Michels or Logan Paul ask Barber these basic questions?

Jake Barber has clearly stated that we don’t need to believe him because his new Starwatcher initiative is going to provide undisputable proof “within the next 12 months”. The aim is to “summon” one or more craft from elsewhere, persuade it or them to land, then privately reverse-engineer the alien technology. The first Skywatcher video has just been released and was, putting it kindly, underwhelming. Michael Battista - their “psionic asset” - was unimpressive, unashamedly claiming that he can “summon” UAP “any time I want”. Battista’s YouTube channel - @StarCorp01 - has old interviews with fabulists Larry Warren and Dan Burisch, which cast considerable doubt over his judgement.

I hope Jake Barber and his team can provide evidence beyond all reasonable doubt before the end of January 2026, by doing privately what he claims the military-industrial complex has been and is doing - preferably an anomalous craft “summoned” down to the ground - but I’m not about to bet the shirt off my back or even the socks off my feet because it sounds less than extremely unlikely. If I’m wrong, I’ll be amongst the first to admit it and celebrate the proof of the pudding.

There is much more detail we could question/add, but I trust the points made above are sufficiently clear without adding further length to this article.

For the past 50 years, I have quietly observed countless claims and promises from those within “ufology” confusing belief with reality - and we are all still waiting for the absolute, no-doubt-whatsoever, proof of extraterrestrial life or visitation. The claims and promises fall flat. New conspiracy theories, or versions thereof, come and go. Most people fail to grasp that the human race is still at the evolutionary level of being an emerging, intelligent, but semi-primitive species. We are dysfunctional and untrustworthy, albeit with tremendous potential. And until we genuinely develop this potential, representatives from any advanced extraterrestrial civilisation will sensibly keep their distance.

As a final word, for now, nothing that I’ve written above surprises me - unfortunately. Next month, I’ll be 68 (so I’m getting old). I’ve seen a lot of human behaviour in my life. But my younger colleagues, who I always encourage to employ critical thinking skills and do their best, are now expressing distaste at what’s happening. They expect better. They view these recent whistleblowers, including David Grusch, as disappointing or even damaging to serious UAP research. They take the position that some UFOs or UAP are probably craft or probes from elsewhere, but they find recent developments “are making the subject look completely stupid and full of nutjobs”. Other printable comments include: “Where’s the journalistic rigour?”, “These whistleblowers undermine the seriousness of the subject, once again increasing the stigma”, “It makes a mockery of any intelligent discussion, tarnishing the testimony of others who’ve served in the military such as Dave Fravor and Alex Dietrich”, and “The speculation is eye-rolling.” My colleagues want real, undisputable data.

Written by Iain Scott, 1st February 2025